Steel Magnolias and Positive Black Images Are Not Above Critique

Like many sistas across the country, I was watching the Steel
Magnolias remake Sunday night and tweeting about it. As I do with anything
I critique, I’m open about my like or dislike for something. It doesn’t
matter what it’s about or who is in it, I’m honest about my opinions
and feelings about it. I wasn’t too fond of this remake and I wasn’t shy
about it.

But that isn’t what this post is about. No, this post is about people
who seem to think anything (or anyone) that isn’t ratchet is above
criticism. As I and several other critiqued Steel Magnolias, several
other came to its defense saying it shouldn’t be criticized because it
showed positive images of Black people and it was better than the
reality television that has been dominating the airwaves as of late.

That is a total and complete load of crap.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen people use this argument. I saw
it with Red Tails. I saw it with Reed Between the Lines. For some
reason, there is a certain section of Black America that thinks any and
everything positive is above critique. It doesn’t matter if it’s boring,
badly written, culturally inaccurate or anything else as long as it
doesn’t feature negroes fighting, tossing drinks or any other type of
chaos.

Yes, the balance of positive images of Black folks to negative
ones is severely off but that won’t get better if we just accept
anything for the sake it lacking ratchetness. If anything, it’ll have
Hollywood thinking they can just throw any ol’ “positive” movie or
television show at us. I want characters with nuances. I admit reality
television is one of my guilty pleasures but nothing thrills me like
something with a good story line and even better character development.
That’s why I just can’t get with something for the sake of it being
positive.
Sure, it was nice to see a stable Black family via Reed Between the
Lines but that doesn’t change the fact that it bored me to tears and the
story line wasn’t much to get excited about.

It was nice to see the likes of Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard and
Queen Latifah act together but that doesn’t change the bad southern
accents, the absence of certain cultural ques and other things that made
me not enjoy that movie.

To me, something that is really positive is complex and it has
nuances. The Black community isn’t mostly comprised of ratchetness and
it isn’t sunshine and smokescreens either. Our only choices shouldn’t be
bland and ratchet.

Our media and art should reflect our complexities.

What do you think? How should the black community approach critiquing our media and art forms?

Steel Magnolias and Positive Black Images Are Not Above Critique
Reviewed by For Harriet
on
October 10, 2012
Rating: 5